It Happens Every Year

7 Av 5778

Every year at this time someone in the media poses this inane question...

Is it time to do away with Tisha B’Av?

Israel has evolved into an economic and military superpower; what must we mourn?

Well, for starters, we could mourn the sad fact that so many Jews can sincerely ask this question. The author writes...

...Jerusalem is built up as never before. The State of Israel seems to be at a historic peak of Jewish strength. So what exactly are we mourning for on Tisha B’Av? True, there is a mosque rather than a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount. True — things are still far from perfect. But isn’t the current reality worlds apart from the desolate and ruined Jerusalem described in the kinnot, the liturgical poems of mourning recited on Tisha B’Av? Might it not be time to open our eyes, take a fresh look at the situation, and change the mourning customs of these days? Might it not be time to go as far as to even, do away with abolish the fast of Tisha B’Av?

Jerusalem is not "built up" unless the House of God stands at its center. Until then, it still lies in ruins. I would even argue that the situation is worse now than ever because it is not readily apparent to most people. I see Jerusalem "built up" with hi-rises and skyscrapers and pyramid-shaped structures, cinemas and shopping complexes, and I mourn over the inroads that the Western Golden Calf has made into our native Middle-Eastern culture.

...Israel is a sovereign state, neither a Roman province (as it was during the Second Temple era), nor a small, poor mountain kingdom (as it was during the First Temple era). Over 70 years of sovereignty, Israel has evolved into an economic and military superpower, and its sovereignty and power have received almost full international recognition.

With at least nine US military bases on Israeli soil and a government which always checks the way the US wind is blowing before making any decision, I don't buy the "Israel is a sovereign state" argument. Furthermore, with the nation's wealth concentrated in the hands of 19 families while Holocaust survivors struggle to make ends meet and with Israel becoming one of the world's leading arms exporters, I hardly find reason for celebration.   I also find no value in "international recognition" while "recognition" by our Father and our King remains undervalued and unacknowledged. 

...The Jewish and democratic State of Israel is in sharp contrast. It is a country whose very existence is based on Jewish tradition, passed down from generation to generation. But what sets it apart is the fact that the moral basis for Israel’s existence is also rooted in the liberal-democratic-humanist tradition, which is a product of modern Western political thought. ...The fusing of Jewish and Western tradition into a single political-moral platform guarantees the State of Israel’s ability to continue to exist,....

Here comes the worst argument of them all. Modern Israel, as a hybrid Judeo-Christian, Jewish Democratic State, where Jew and Gentile, Gay and Straight and all in between have become One New Man in the Western tradition, paying mere lip service to the Bible, is even better than anything that came before - including the years when the Beit Hamikdash stood on Har Habayit. 

...There are those in the modern State of Israel who try to lessen the influence of Western democratic tradition while giving primary or exclusive status to Jewish tradition. 

That would be me and most of you, too.

These days of mourning, and Tisha B’Av, are stark warnings of the depths to which we might sink if we fail to create a balance between the two, and if we choose one tradition exclusively over the other. Only the preservation of the balance between Jewish and democratic and values will enable Israeli society to continue to exist and thrive.

The author's conclusion is that we need to maintain the observance of Tisha b'Av, not to remind us what we've lost and why, but in order to remind ourselves of what could happen if we ever lose sight of the benefits of democracy and let the religious "extremists" take us back to the bad past when we had a Temple, a High Priest, a King and a Sanhedrin.

I'm sure it won't surprise you to learn that the author, "Dr. Friedman, is the director of the Center for Religion, Nation and State at the Israel Democracy Institute, and a member of the Faculty of Law at the Peres Academic Center."

The fact that there are Jews who think this way and consider themselves "religious" is reason enough for me to mourn this Tisha b'Av. This is what the assimilation of exile has wrought on us. Hashem yerachem!